Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

G.

Gadshill. The residence of the late Charles Dickens (1812-1870), and the scene of Falstaff's famous exploit, at a town of the same name near Rochester, England.

Seamen who had just been paid off at Chatham were often compelled to deliver their purses on Gadshill, celebrated near a hundred years earlier by the greatest of poets as the scene of the depredations of Poins and Falstaff. Macaulay.

Gaillard. The famous castle of Richard Cœur de Lion, situated on a high rock on the bank of the Seine, near Gaillon in France. It is now an imposing ruin.

"This magnificent ruin of the favorite castle of Richard I. is on the banks of the Seine, near Les Andelys, the birthplace of Poussin, and the retreat of Thomas Corneille. A single year sufficed to form its immense fosses, and to raise those walls which might seem to be the structure of a lifetime. When Cœur de Lion saw it finished, he is said to have exclaimed with exulta

tion, How beautiful she is, this daughter of a year!'"

Longfellow's Poems of Places. The two long years had passed away, When castle Gaillard rose,

As built at once by elfin hands,
And scorning time or foes.

It might be thought that Merlin's imps
Were tasked to raise the wall,
That unheard axes fell the woods,
While unseen hammers fall.

Galatea.

W. L. Bowles.

A beautiful fresco in the Farnesina, Rome, by Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520), representing the goddess borne over the waves in a shell drawn by dolphins, with tritons and nymphs playing around her.

"This is one of the most beau. tiful compositions that art has produced, imbued with a sense of life and enjoyment that is perfectly enchantg." Eastlake, Handbook of Painting.

"His Galatea' is a work which explains the diversity between Michael Angelo and Raphael, manifesting the exquisite refinement of the latter, and his tendency toward that pure, noble, graceful manner which constituted the beau-ideal of the ancient Greeks."

Quatremère de Quincy.

"Raphael nct only designed but executed this fresco; and faded as is its coloring, the mind must be dead to the highest beauties of painting that can contemplate it without admiration. The spirit and beauty of the composition, the pure and perfect design, the flowing outline, the soft and graceful contours, and the sentiment and sweetness of the expression, all remain unchanged; for time, till it totally obliterates, has no power to injure them." C. A. Eaton.

Galatea is an image of beauty of soul united to that of the body. It is indeed a sort of glorified human nature, or rather a goddess clad in human form. Passavant.

I must not omit that incomparable table of Galatea (so I remember) carefully preserved to protect it from the air, being a most lively painting. John Evelyn, 1644.

Holmes.

On the maternal side I inherit the loveliest silver-mounted tobacco-stopper you ever saw. It is a little box-wood Triton, carved with charming liveliness and truth. I have often compared it to a figure in Raphael's Triumph of Galatea. Galerie d'Apollon. A magnificent and profusely decorated gallery in the Louvre, Paris. It was first built by Charles IX., burnt in the time of Louis XIV., afterwards rebuilt, and finally completed by Napoleon III. in 1851. Here is the collection of the Musée des Bijoux.

Galerie de la Colonnade. Three fine halls in the east wing of the Louvre, Paris. Here are placed the paintings of the Musée Napoléon III., bought by the Government from the Marquis Campana.

Galerie des Glaces. [Grand Galerie de Louis XIV.] An elegant room one of the most magnificent in the world- in the centre of the palace of Versailles, France. It is 239 feet long, 33 feet wide, 23 feet high, and is profusely ornamented. Upon the walls are paintings in honor of the glory of Louis XIV. Balls and fêtes were held here until the Revolution, and on great occasions the throne

was moved into this room. The last ball given here was opened by Queen Victoria (in whose honor it was held) and the emperor, in August, 1855.

"Look at this Galerie des Glaces,' cries Monsieur Vatout, staggering with surprise at the appearance of the room, two hundred and forty-two feet long, and forty high. Here it was that Louis displayed all the grandeur of royalty; and such was the splendor of his court, and the luxury of the times, that this immense room could hardly contain the crowd of courtiers that pressed around the monarch. Wonderful! wonderful! Eight thousand four hundred and sixty square feet of courtiers! Give a square yard to each, and you have a matter of three thousand of them. Think of three thousand courtiers per day, and all the chopping and changing of them for near forty years; some dying, some getting their wishes and retiring to their provinces to enjoy their plunder, some disgraced and going home to pine away out of the light of the sun; new ones perpetually arriving, - pushing, squeezing, for their place in the crowded Galerie des Glaces.'"

Thackeray.

[blocks in formation]

Gallery of Gondo. This gallery, or tunnel, on the Simplon road through the Alps, is cut through a solid rock. The work was accomplished by 18 months of unintermitted labor, day and night. The gallery is 683 feet in length, and bears the inscription "Aere Italo 1805 Nap. Imp."

Gallienus, Palace of. A ruined palace, and relic of Roman times, in Bordeaux, France.

Gallows Hill. A hill near Salem, Mass., where 19 of the so-called witches were put to death in the time of the witchcraft delusion in 1692.

Galilee Porch. The name given Ganymede and the Eagle. An

to an entrance vestibule of the Cathedral of Durham in England, regarded as one of the archæological and art treasures of Great Britain.

"This unusual apartment, the Lady Chapel practically, was built es pecially as a place of worship for women, who were not admitted into the main church, on account of a violent antipathy for the sex felt by its patron saint, the reputed Anthony-like-tempted Cuthbert." J. F. Hunnewell.

Galileo's Tower. [Ital. Torre del Gallo.] A structure in the neighborhood of Florence, Italy, thought to have been the tower from which Galileo made astronomical observations.

The towering Campanile's height Where Galileo found his starry chair. J. E. Reade. Galla Placidia, Mausoleum of. See MAUSOLEUM OF GALLA PLACIDIA.

Galleria Lapidaria. [Lapidary Gallery, or Gallery of Inscriptions.] A corridor in the Vatican Palace, Rome, of great length,

admired relic of ancient sculpture. In the Museum at Naples, Italy.

Ganymede, Rape of. See RAPE OF GANYMEDE.

Garaye. A picturesque ruined château in the environs of Dinan, France. The Hon. Mrs. Norton has an admired poem, entitled "The Lady of Garaye,' the story of which is associated with these ruins.

[ocr errors]

Garden of Love. A picture by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), now in the gailery at Madrid, "representing various couples, elegantly dressed, and enjoying the pleasures of music and dalliance in the open air." There is a copy of this picture in the Dresden Gallery.

Garden of Plants. See JARDIN DES PLANTES.

Garden Reach. A celebrated promenade in Calcutta, India. It is laid out like a park, with fine trees and tropical plants, and is occupied by the Europeans.

Gardens of Sallust, Ruins of. See SALLUST'S HOUSE AND GARDENS. Garisenda, La. A noted leaning tower in Bologna, Italy, which derives its name from that of its builders, the brothers Garisendi. The height of this tower is 130 feet, and the deviation from the perpendicular is eight feet towards the south and three feet towards the east. There is a companion tower called the Torre degli Asinelli. The cause of the inclination of these towers has been a subject in dispute, as in the case of the more celebrated Leaning Tower of Pisa. Eustace remarks of these in Bologna that they are "remarkable only for their unmeaning elevation and dangerous deviation from the perpendicular." See TORRE DEGLI ASINELLI.

As seems the Garisenda, to behold Beneath the leaning side, when goes a cloud

Above it so that opposite it hangs;
Such did Antæus seem to me.

Dante, Inferno, Longfellow's Trans. Barraway's. A noted coffee-house in Change Alley, Cornhill, London. Here tea was first sold in England. Garraway's was much resorted to during the time of the South-Sea Bubble, and was at all times a scene of great mercantile transactions. It was taken down in 1366.

Meanwhile, secure on Garway's cliffs, A savage race by shipwrecks fed, Lie waiting for the founder'd skiffs, And strip the bodies of the dead. Swift (Ballad on the South-Sea Scheme). The Cits met to discuss the rise and fall of stocks, and to settle the rate of insurances, at Garraway's or Jonathan's.

National Review.

Doctor John Radcliffe, who in the year 16×5 rose to the largest practice in London, came daily, at the hour when the Exchange was full, from his house in Bow Street, then a fashionable part of the capital, to Garraway's, and was to be found surrounded by surgeons and anothecaries, at a particular table. Macaulay.

Let me read the first: "Garraway's. twelve o'clock. Dear Mrs. B.,-Chops and tomato sauce. Yours, Pickwick." Gentlemen, what does this mean? Chops and tomato sauce. Yours, Pickwick! Chops! Gracious heavens! and tomato sauce! Gentlemen, is the happiness of a sensitive and confiding female to be trifled away by such shallow artifices as these? Dickens.

Garrick Club. A famous club in Covent Garden, London, founded in 1831, with the object "of bringing together the patrons of the drama and its professors, and also for offering literary men a rendezvous.' The club derived its name from that of the distinguished actor; and many noted men, from James Smith ("Rejected Addresses") to Thackeray, have made it a favorite resort. The club has an interesting collection of theatrical portraits.

"Among my great pleasures at the Garrick Club was the sight of the large and very interesting collection of dramatic portraits that has accumulated there in the course of many years. Almost every thing fine of this sort has gravitated there lately, as if by the operation of natural law."

Richard Grant White. Garry Castle. A striking ruin in Kings County, Ireland. Garter, The. An old English inn which figures in Shakespeare's comedy of "The Merry Wives of Windsor," and in which is laid the scene of the third act of that play.

Falstaff. Mine host of the Garter.
Shakespeare.

Gaspee, The. A British sloop-ofwar captured and burned by a band of men from Providence, R. I., on the night of June 17, 1772.

Gaston de Foix. A portrait, with mirrors repeating the figure, by Girolamo Savoldo, a Brescian painter. This picture is in the Louvre, Paris; and there is an original repetition of it in Hampton Court.

Gate of Alcala. See PUERTA DE ALCALA.

Gate of the Lions. A celebrated gateway in the wall of the citadel of Mykene, Greece. The ruins have recently been entirely removed from around this gateway.

Pausanias says, "Among other parts of the enclosure which still remain, a gate is perceived with lions standing on it; and they report these were the works of the Cyclops, who also made for Protus the walls of Tiryns."

"The blocks forming this [Gate of Lions] are enormous in size, quadrangular, and horizontal. They are 15 feet high and 9 feet broad; and the opening is surmounted by a huge lintel, of which the three dimensions are 15 feet long, 6 feet broad, and 3 feet thick. A bas-relief, 7 feet high, and 10 feet broad at the base, forms a sort of triangular pediment at the gate, within which are sculptured two lions standing on their hind-feet, resting their fore-paws upon a pillar placed between them so as to face each other. Their heads, which have been broken, former

ly reached the height of the capital of the pillar. This pillar increases gradually in diameter from base to summit; and its capital is supported upon four disks, which are supposed to represent the billets of wood meant to maintain the sacred fire. The Gate of Lions formed the chief entrance to the Acropolis." Lefevre, Trans.

Gate of the Sun. See PUERTA DEL SOL.

Gates, Iron. See IRON GATES. Gates of Calais. A well-known picture by William Hogarth (1697– 1764).

Gates of Paradise. See BRONZE GATES, etc.

Generalife. A beautiful Moorish palace, surrounded with fountains and gardens, in Granada, Spain.

Geneviève, St. See PANTHEON (2). Genius of the Vatican. A celebrated half-figure in Parian marble, bearing this name, in the Vatican, Rome. It is supposed to be the Cupid of Praxiteles. It was found on the Via Labicana, outside of the Porta Maggiore.

We'll take, say, that most perfect of antiques,

Vienna. [Called also sometimes The Astrologers, or The Philosophers.]

"I have myself no doubt that this beautiful picture represents the Three wise men of the East,' watching on the Chaldean hills the appearance of the miraculous star, and that the light breaking in the far horizon, called in the German description the rising sun, is intended to express the rising of the Star of Jacob."

Mrs. Jameson.

Geometry. A picture by Caravaggio (1569-1609), representing a ragged girl playing with a pair of compasses. In the Spada palace, Rome.

George d'Amboise. A famous bell which formerly hung in the tower of the Cathedral of Rouen. It was taken down and melted in the time of the Revolution. George, Fort. See FORT GEORGE. George Square. A fine park and pleasure-ground in Glasgow, Scotfand, surrounded by the finest buildings in the city.

George's. 1. An old London Club. It was accustomed to meet on St. George's Day, April 23.

2. A coffee-house in the Strand, London, famous and much frequented in this and the last century.

A certain young fellow at George's, whenever he had occasion to ask his friend for a guinea, used to preclude his request as if he wanted 200, and talked so familiarly of large sums, that none could ever think he wanted a small one. Goldsmith.

George, St. See ST. GEORGE. George's, St. See ST. GEORGE's.

They call the Genius of the Vatican,
Which seems too beauteous to endure it- Georgia Augusta. The name

self

In this mixed world, and fasten it for once Upon the torso of the Drunken Faun (Who might limp surely, if he did not dance)

Instead of Buonarroti's mask: what then?

given to the University of Göt-
tingen, Germany, from its found-
er, George II. of England, who
established it in 1737.

Germain des Prés, St.
Mrs. Browning.

Geometricians, The. A celebrated allegorical picture by Giorgio Barbarelli, called Giorgione (1477– 1511), the exact signification of which has been a matter of dispute. In the Belvedere Gallery,

GERMAIN DES PRÉS.

See ST.

Germain l'Auxerrois, St. See ST.

GERMAIN L'AUXERROIS. Germanicus.

An ancient statue called by this name, but representing a Roman orator, and sup

posed to be the work of the Greek sculptor Cleomenes. It is in the Louvre, Paris.

Gervais, St. See ST. GERVAIS. Gethsemane. A small square enclosure of about 200 feet, surrounded by a high wall, a little way out of Jerusalem, below St. Stephen's Gate, and near the foot of the Mount of Olives. It is traditionally identified with the scene of the closing events in the life of Jesus as recorded in Matt. xxvi. 30-56, Mark xiv. 26-52, Luke xxii. 39-53, and John xviii. 1-14. There is no intrinsic improbability in the monastic traditions concerning it. It is now a desolate spot, containing a few very old and shattered olive-trees, the trunks of which are supported by stones, though some of the branches are flourishing. The garden belongs to the Latin Christians, and the Greek Church has fixed upon another locality as the true site of Gethsemane. Gettysburg, Battle of. TLE OF GETTYSBURG. Gezeereh, Palace of. A modern palace at Cairo, Egypt, so called from the ground which it occupies having been formerly an island (gezeereh) between branches of the Nile.

See BAT

Gherardesca, Villa. See VILLA
GHERARDESCA.

Ghetto. [Jews' Quarter.] An en-
closure in Rome formerly set
apart for the residence of the
Jews. They have, until recent-
ly, been confined to this crowded
and dirty section since the time
of Pope Paul IV., who first com-
pelled them to live within the
walls of the Ghetto, and forbade
their appearance outside of that
quarter, unless the men were dis-
tinguished from the Christians
by a yellow hat, and the women
by a veil of the same color. The
Jews suffered much persecution,
and were governed by many ar-
bitrary regulations while confined
to this crowded region; but now
the limits of the Ghetto are re-
moved, and the oppressive regu-

ew

lations revoked. The name Ghet-
to is derived by some from the
Hebrew word chat, meaning "bro-
ken" or "destroyed.'
"" The pres-
ent population of the Ghetto is
estimated at 3,800.

"The Ghetto, from its appearance, its filthy and narrow streets, would seem to be the very hot-bed of disease. Here we should expect to find all the plagues and pestilences which have desolated the earth in former ages preserved as in a morbid museum. But the reverse is the fact. It is in some respects the healthiest part of the city." Hillard.

I went to the Ghetto, where the Jews dwell, as in a suburb by themselves, being invited by a Jew of my acquaintance. Being invironed by walls, they are locked up every night. In this place remains yet part of a stately fabric, which my Jew told me had been a palace of theirs for the ambassador of their nation, when their country was subject to the Romans. John Evelyn, 1644.

"Tis called the Ghetto; and the pious towns

man

Shuns it, unless his piety lie deep
Enough to teach him not to turn aside
From any form of human brotherhood:
Hard by the muddy Tiber's idle flow,
Beyond the shadow of the Vatican,
Yet within sound, almost, of choirs that
chant

Morning and evening to a Christian organ,
Its prison-like and ragged houses rise.
Parsons.

Ghirlandina, La. [The Garland.]
A noted tower in Modena, Italy,
forming the campanile, or bell-
tower, of the cathedral. It de-
rives its name from the encircling
sculptures which adorn it. See
SECCHIA RAPITA.

Giant's Castle. A famous struc-
ture on the summit of a mountain
near Cassel, Germany. On the
top of the castle is a pyramid 96
feet high, supporting a statue of
Hercules (a copy of the Farnese)
31 feet in height. This castle in-
cludes a system of water-works
connected with the grounds of
Wilhelmshöhe, which is, perhaps,
unequalled. The fountain sup-
plied by these water-works rises
in a column 12 inches in diameter
to the height of 190 feet.
Giant's Causeway. A celebrated
mass of basaltic columns, of all
forms from triangular to octago-
nal, on the northern coast of Ire
land, extending into the sea.

York

[blocks in formation]

Z St. Gabriel's Park Branch,

303 East 36th Street

« ПредишнаНапред »